The year is 1992, the place the auditorium of the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg: among the members of the European Community Youth Orchestra, led by none less than Carlo Maria Giulini, is a certain Renaud Capuçon, then at the beginning of a dazzling career. Ever since, he has performed regularly on the other side of the Red Bridge – at the Philharmonie. This season, the French violinist appears three times, as one of the Philharmonie’s Artists in focus.

The first of these, a chamber music concert, is on 29.10., when the musician shares the stage with Martha Argerich, a long-term partner with «incredible temperament and an urge for liberty» (France Musique), who is sure to take the audience on a journey to other spheres, for, as Capuçon recounts, «one leaves planet Earth when one plays with Martha». Despite his brilliant solo career, the call of the orchestra was always strong within Renaud Capuçon. A few years ago he went so far as to ask his friend Philippe Jordan for a chance to join the members of the orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris in the pit under Jordan’s baton. On 27.02., the second concert of his residency features him conducting the Luxembourg Philharmonic in a programme that combines Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto with the youthful Julia Hagen taking the solo part and Antonín Dvořák’s atmospheric Eighth Symphony.

Youth is also the motto of Renaud Capuçon’s last appearance this season, as he likes nothing more than continuously expanding his musical family by including the next generation of artists: on 15.03., he will perform with the cellist Kian Soltani and the pianist Mao Fujita at the Salle de Musique de Chambre.

In 1992, a star was born which has grown into an entire constellation, and its radiance will light up these evenings at the Philharmonie.